Madrid for a Night

We just got home from a quick one-night trip to Madrid. The saga of my lost suitcase continues - they haven't found it yet and at this point they have stopped looking. What happens when one day it shows up in Heathrow or Madrid? Do they call me? Do they toss it in the dumpster? Who knows. The good news is that British Airways is paying us some for our lost items and we may be able to get a little more from our credit card's travel insurance. In order to apply for the insurance payout we had to get a document notarized...and of course, the easiest way to do that was to go to the US Embassy in Madrid. It was either go to US soil in Spain or pay to get the document translated and then notarized by a Spanish notary and hope it was accepted by the US travel insurance company. Oy vey!

Since we had to go to Madrid anyway we decided to make the best of it and spend the night. We stayed in the neighborhood Lavapiés at a cute little hotel that had awesome views of the city. The neighborhood used to be the Jewish quarter of Madrid but now has a sizable Asian population and kind of feels like being in a smaller version of Chinatown/TL in SF. Here's the view from our balcony (!):

WP catching some vitamin D: 

Madrid (and Spain in general) love Christmas! There are decorations all over town and lots of activities for kids. I didn't get any night photos of all the Madrid Christmas lights, but we did stop for a few minutes when we saw this hilarious show. On the side of El Corte Inglés (a big department store) there was this awesome circus scene with moving parts, music playing and characters walking through the audience making balloon animals. 

We also stopped by the restaurant Lhardy which was founded in 1839. They have a fancy (and expensive) sit down restaurant upstairs but they also have a cafe where Will was able to try their famous consommé with sherry. 

Today we visited an English language secondhand bookstore and cafe. It was fun to meet some other expat types and we even found some books to take home (those of you who know WP are very surprised to hear this, I'm sure). We chatted with the Englishman in charge for awhile and after a couple free cafes con leche he directed us to an amazing Asian food store! I think the common consensus foreigners come to is that Spanish food has its merits, but that variety of flavor is not its strong suit. After a short walk from the book stop, we found the Asian store! It is located under a plaza next to the entrance of a dirty parking garage. Not glamorous, but once we got inside, it didn't matter. We've been looking for some Asian cooking products for awhile and were so so so happy with what we found! 

That's right, we went a little crazy stocking up...buckwheat noodles (or "noolde", as the package says), sesame seeds, two types of Thai curry pastes, rice vinegar, sesame oil, wasabe peas, miso paste, and of course, KIKKOMAN! And I guess anyone who knows me can see why we had to get the 1 liter bottle of soy sauce; we all have our weaknesses! On the train home we were already dreaming up meals to start using up these bad boys. 

  

On Sunday we're hosting a Christmas party for our friends here in CR. I'm looking forward to the secret santa gift exchange, mulled wine, and cheesy Christmas music. 

On that note, I'll leave you with Madonna's late 80s cover of Santa Baby. Love!